Salon has an excerpt of Clarke's book today with an interesting revelation that I hadn't seen before:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/04/02/clarke/index1.html
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I wasn't the only one asserting an al-Qaida threat whom Wolfowitz belittled. Our ambassador to Indonesia, Robert Gelbard, was putting pressure on the Jakarta government to do something about al-Qaida and its offshoot, Jemmah Islamiyah (JI). Gelbard had closed the U.S. embassy in Jakarta when he received credible reports that a six-person al-Qaida hit team had been dispatched from Yemen. He had publicly criticized the Indonesian government for turning a blind eye to al-Qaida infiltration and subversion. Then on Christmas Day 2000, the JI launched an offensive against Christians, bombing 20 churches. Gelbard stepped up his pressure privately and publicly.
Bob Gelbard had been a star in the Foreign Service for three decades, had been ambassador to Bolivia, Assistant Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement and Narcotics, Special Presidential Envoy to the Balkans. He was not the kind of diplomat who worried about place settings, but instead knew about armed helicopters and communications intercepts. He had fought drug lords and Serbian thugs. Now he saw what was taking place in Indonesia: Al-Qaida was targeting the largest Islamic nation in the world as its next battlefield.
Arriving in the Pentagon early in 2001, Paul Wolfowitz began calling old acquaintances in Indonesia, where he had earlier been ambassador. What he heard from them was that Gelbard was making things uncomfortable, making too much noise about al-Qaida, being paranoid. Wolfowitz reportedly urged Gelbard's removal. Bob Gelbard came home and retired from the Foreign Service. In October 2002, al-Qaida's local front attacked nightclubs in Bali, killing 202, mainly Australians. Ten months later, they attacked the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, killing 13. The investigations that followed revealed an extensive network of al-Qaida operatives in Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia led by those whom Gelbard had suspected and had demanded be stopped.
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